Marvel's new monster talent

The Nevers star Laura Donnelly has joined the MCU — she talks to Nick Clark about a superhero show with a difference

- Nick Clark

LAURA Donnelly’s award-winning performance in Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman, a play that took the West End and Broadway by storm, is the gift that keeps on giving”, she says. It landed her the lead in last year’s blockbuster TV show The Nevers, and has now paved the way for her to join one of entertainment’s biggest franchises: the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Donnelly stars opposite Gael Garcia Bernal in Werewolf by Night, a real left-turn for Marvel. It is a Halloween special in black and white; a loving tribute to the classic Universal monster movies of the Thirties.

The show’s casting director, Sarah Finn, caught Donnelly’s performance on Broadway in 2019. When theatre is good it can have such a profound impact. Three years after seeing me in The Ferryman, Sarah was thinking of me for the role,” the Northern Irish actress says. A lot of people will remember you more from a theatre production than any film or TV show. You stay in people’s mind longer.”

She plays Elsa Bloodstone, who first appeared in Marvel comics two decades ago, an all-action, no-nonsense heroine, as handy with a wisecrack as with a sword. After Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently said this world of monsters will ultimately become quite important to the future of the MCU”, the expectation is that at some point soon she will step out of this standalone story and rub shoulders with the franchise’s current superheroes. Donnelly says: I would have done this even if it was decided it’s a standalone. But if you get involved in the universe, of course you want to go on and do the team-ups. It’s fun. I’m doing this for the fun of it.”